Robert Zemeckis is adding one more notch to his animation belt, this time in the form of AIRMAN, a movie that will be based on the best-selling Eoin Colfer book of the same title. The main difference from his other projects is that Zemeckis will stay in the producer’s chair this time and leave the heavy lifting to Gil Kenan, who previously directed the hilarious MONSTER HOUSE and CITY OF EMBER.

Perhaps because of Zemeckis’ influence on the production, the movie will unfortunately feature his patented motion-capture animation. He’s used it for many of his projects, including POLAR EXPRESS, BEOWULF, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and his upcoming remake of YELLOW SUBMARINE. Obviously, just by looking at the CHRISTMAS CAROL trailers and comparing it to POLAR EXPRESS, the technique has been highly refined over the years and the characters look less creepy, but I’m still not sold on it. Zemeckis sure is, though.

As I mentioned previously, the story will be adapted from the Eoin Colfer book. Ann Peacock will translate the novel to film, which she has done before for THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. AIRMAN tells the story of Conor Broekhart, a young boy who, after being being born on a hot air balloon ride at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair, develops a life-long obsession with flight. The story is fictional, but grounded in reality and not cartoony, so I think it translates well into what Zemeckis has been doing so far with his motion-capture technique: presenting realistic characters in outrageous situations. I just hope the technology continues to get less creepy.

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